Tornado leaves Wyoming town littered with debris

WRIGHT, Wyo. – Shannon Liebold dug frantically through the rubble of his mobile home looking for any signs of his wife and three children after the tornado touched down.

It would be two hours before he learned with relief that they had all survived by fleeing ahead of the storm with neighbors.

The tornado that hit Wright on Friday spent 10 to 15 minutes on the ground, shredded siding, sent metal sheets swirling through the air and killed two people while destroying dozens of homes, including 40 to 50 in Liebold’s mobile home park about 100 miles northeast of Casper.

“I was a nervous wreck,” Liebold, 32, who had been away when the tornado struck, said as he described the fear that gripped him when he saw the destruction and couldn’t find his family.

On Saturday, streets in the coal-mining town of 1,500 were littered with the glass of blown-out car windows, and road signs were twisted. Plush chairs stood amid what remained of living rooms and homes.

Some were luckier than others: Athena Brill pointed to broken windows as the obvious sign of damage at her home.

Tammy Gordon couldn’t find hers. The 24-year-old vacillated between tears and defiance as she leaned on crutches and listened to kids run up to her – items in hand – inquiring if they belonged to her or her boyfriend, Travis.

Her boyfriend, too, was on crutches because of injuries sustained after riding out the storm in their home.

Gordon doesn’t remember much from the tornado, just that it happened so quickly.

“He said, ‘We don’t have time to get out. Get on the floor!’ I don’t even know if I hit the floor,” she said.

Authorities said residents at the Cottonwood Mobile Home Park had five minutes warning before it hit.

Kelly Anderson, 34, said he called from work to warn his wife and three children at home after seeing the tornado heading for the mobile home park.

“I could hear the kids screaming,” said Anderson, whose family and home survived almost unscathed.

One person was found dead and a second died at a hospital. About a dozen people were injured, but only one remained hospitalized Saturday. Three people listed as missing Friday night were all found safe.